Customized mailings and products for consumers can be manufactured by printing variable data on stock material, such as paper. Such print systems typically use a printer having a paper feed path from a media tray holding standardized stock material and an electronically stored data base of customer information. The customer information is printed on the stock material and delivered to the customers. This method is effective for standardized stock material that does not vary or depend on the customer information.
However, there are applications for a variety of different stock materials having custom, pre-printed portions. For example, paper stock that has a printed metal film with a text message outline cannot easily be printed using conventional ink-printing equipment. In this case, customized stock must first be produced using a different printing process and, subsequently, the customized stock is handled and printed with customer data. Each customized stock can have a different stock keeping unit (SKU), quantities of each customized stock element can be very small, and the process by which customer information is printed on the customized stock element can entail a great deal of human handling by printing staff. Hence, printing such products can entail a great deal of work and is prone to error. Furthermore, while paper size, type, and orientation can be properly established and manually entered into a printer memory or connected computer, it is desirable to automate such tasks to prevent errors.
Printers can employ sensors for improving the handling of paper in a paper feed path but these are not useful for identifying or managing stock types. While a printer can have several stock media trays to provide stock to the printer and can have information identifying the stock media (for example as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,647,222), the stock type information needs to be provided via user or operator input. Several problems may result due to user error in entering an incorrect media type and/or loading incorrect media in the paper drawer or tray.
To some extent, this problem has been recognized in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 6,823,147 describes a method for detecting mismatches between printer resources and requirements. U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,639 describes a method of finding the best match for a printer, the job printer requirements, and the printer's paper capabilities or stocks. However, these approaches do not necessarily provide what a customer desires.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,193 describes a scannable bar code pattern printed on a sheet of printer media or on a sheet attached to such media. The bar code is then read by a bar code scanner to identify the media and corresponding customer variable information can then be printed on the stock media. This method, however, requires a process for back printing unique codes on the stock in either visible or invisible ink, increasing the cost of the stock. If the bar code is visible, it precludes the possibility of a product printed on both sides of the stock, reducing customer satisfaction with the product. U.S. Pat. No. 6,726,357 describes identifying media by a heat signature. However, if the same media with customized text, for example, is employed, it is unlikely that the customized media can be distinguished by a thermal signature.
There is a need, therefore, for an improved apparatus for printing variable customer information on to a variety of different pre-printed stocks.